Molecular and metabolic imaging of hepatic neuroendocrine tumors following radioembolization with 90Y-microspheres

Liver is the predominant site of metastatization for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Up to 75% of patients affected by intestinal NETs present liver metastases at diagnosis. For hepatic NET, surgery represents the most effective approach but is often unfeasible due to the massive involvement of multifocal disease. In such cases, chemotherapy, peptide receptor radionuclide therapy and loco-regional treatments may represent alternative therapeutic options. In particular, radioembolization with Y-90-microspheres has been introduced as a novel technique for treating hepatic malignant lesions, combining the principles of embolization and radiation therapy. In order to evaluate the response to Y-90-radioembolization, standard radiologic criteria have been demonstrated to present several limitations. (18)Fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is routinely used for monitoring the response to therapy in oncology. Nevertheless, NETs often present low glycolytic activity thus the conventional (18)FDG PET may not be adequate for these tumors. For many years, somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) with 111 In-pentetreotide has been used for diagnosis and staging of NETs. More recently, three Ga-68-DOTA-compounds have been developed and introduced for the imaging of NETs with PET technology. The aim of the present paper was to review the existing literature concerning the application of different metabolic and molecular probes for the imaging evaluation of hepatic NETs following Y-90-RE.